For a group of elite US athletes a moment is quickly arriving – the 2024 Olympic games. I think people have their favorite sport. In my case, no surprise, it is the swimming events. Every four years people are brought to a moment. And they don’t arrive unprepared. Years of preparation.

There is a threshold of practice that raises one’s level of performance to expert. And then a dedicated persistence and perseverance in that practice is needed to maintain that level of expertise. The number oft mentioned in 10,000 hours. Last century, when I was in college I had reached 10,000 hours and more. I competed at a national level, in the deep end so to speak, where lots of people competed in races that were resolved in tenths or hundredths of seconds. Continue reading →